Files of the Bureaus of Surveys, Engineering and Surveys, and Engineering, Surveys and Zoning

[Record Series: 90.23]

Files include newspaper clippings, reports, publications, lectures of Bureau employees, photos, inventories, memoranda and correspondence between the Chief Engineer and Surveyor and other City Departments and Bureaus, federal and state agencies, municipal officials of other countries, and private organizations and individuals.

Subjects of the files include aerial photography, bridges, city planning, condemnation for public use and the assessment of benefits and award of damages, the proposed Delaware River Tunnel, the Delaware River Bridge, Girard College, Housing, history of the city, history of the Bureau of Surveys, Industry, the National Conference of City Planning, population, public works, properties condemned by the City 1928-1929 and assessed to the City 1927, Parks and parkways, the Philadelphia District Standard of measurement, personnel, Roosevelt Boulevard, the Sesquicentennial Exhibition, procedures for opening streets, street numbering and cleaning, construction and maintenance of Schuylkill water front properties, Schuylkill Expressway, Central Traffic Circuit, traffic distribution, triangulation, rules of practice and procedures of the Board of Viewers, and Zoning.

The files also contain annual reports of the City Plans and General Plans Division for the years 1921-1931, the annual report of the Permanent Committee on Comprehensive Plans 1912, a report on the boundaries of Fairmount Park dated 1936 (with worksheets), a list of instructions for the arrangement of the Bureau's photographs, inventories of office equipment and supplies, 1939, and of items exhibited at the Architectural, Regional and City Planning Exposition of 1925.

These files also include "circular letters" of the Chief Engineer and Surveyors 1911-1918 addressed to the Assistant Engineer, General Plans, which discuss such topics as office discipline, bidding procedures, interpretation of contracts and specifications, the functions of the Art Jury and the Philadelphia Fire Commission, political activities and the assessment of Departmental employees, civil service examinations, relations between contractors and inspectors, and other topics pertaining to Departmental administration; and correspondence of the Assistant Engineer, General Plans 1912-1916 pertaining to the National Conference on City Planning and its studies in city planning and land subdivision.